Backroom Briefing: Morgan comes clean about 'two-for-one'

By DARA KAM AND JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, May 12, 2016.......... Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan, a devout Catholic who's spent more than $7.5 million of his and his law firm's money trying to pass a constitutional amendment to broadly legalize medical marijuana, made a confession of sorts this week at the nation's largest pot trade show.

Morgan's proposal, which narrowly failed in 2014 to capture the 60 percent approval required for constitutional amendments to pass in Florida, will be back before voters in November.

Two years ago, Morgan repeatedly brushed off questions about a possible connection between the pot proposal and one of his employees --- former Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who was to try to return to the governor's mansion as a Democrat. At the time, Morgan refused to say whether the presence of the pot amendment would boost Crist's chances for an election win.
 
But during a speech Tuesday at the Marijuana Business Daily semi-annual trade show at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, Morgan admitted he maybe wasn't telling the whole truth back then.
 
"The last time I got into this thing, I got into it before Charlie Crist, a lawyer in my firm, started running for governor," Morgan said. "I will confess that, once I got into it, there was a benefit to having this on the ballot at the same time that a member of my law firm was running for governor of the state of Florida."
 
“I confess that now,” Morgan said, calling out a News Service of Florida reporter by name.
 
Morgan, a major Democratic fundraiser who told the audience that former President Bill Clinton visited him at his home last week, quickly backpedaled from his apparent truth telling, however.
 
“I didn't really lie. What I did was, I said this could be two-for-one, because I started my marijuana deal before Charlie got in the race. … That's the truth. I got real fired up about it because I thought, hey, we could get marijuana and Charlie. So that really motivated me,” Morgan said.

In the end, the marijuana proposal and Crist fell short, with Republican Gov. Rick Scott winning a second term.
 
Crist, who still works for Morgan and is running for an open Pinellas County congressional seat this year, smiled when told of his boss' comments.
 
"I tried to be helpful, and was delighted to be helpful to the degree that I could," Crist said during an interview Thursday morning in St Petersburg.
 
Crist said he believes voters will approve the medical marijuana amendment this fall.
 
"I think that it's important that it pass," he said. "If you had, like me, a sister who died of brain cancer, or, in John's case, a brother who really struggles, then you understand how this could bring such help to people who truly need it, in the medical sense."

PUTNAM DECIDES TO VOTE FOR TRUMP

Count Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam among those who have entered Camp Trump.

Putnam said Tuesday that "everybody has to make their own decisions," while saying he would vote for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

"I am concerned about how he has positioned himself with some key voting blocs," Putnam told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. "But I'm also intrigued by the poll that one of you guys ran today that had it 43-42."

A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday put Clinton at 43 percent in Florida and Trump at 42 percent. Trump leads 52 percent to 33 percent among white voters and 49-36 among men. Clinton was up 48 percent to 35 percent among women and 63-20 among non-white voters.

Putnam, who is expected to run for governor in 2018, initially backed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's presidential run and later got behind U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

Putnam made note that he is a Republican, Trump won 66 of Florida's 67 counties in the GOP primary and, most of all, "I don't intend to vote for Hillary Clinton."

TWEET OF THE WEEK: "Sen. Reid ought to learn that 'I want you to lose' is no excuse for a gross smear. But the air is cleared." --- U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (@AlanGrayson), in the fourth of a series of tweets directed at U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Wednesday. The two reportedly had a highly emotional exchange during a closed-door meeting of House progressives on Wednesday in which Grayson criticized Reid for calling on him to drop out of Florida's U.S. Senate race due to an ongoing ethics investigation.